Re: spin direction on tires

[James Marriott <marriott@micron.net>]

Haudi,

John Hadjisky wrote:
snip
> Anyway, these Vipers seem OK, nothing special, but not very sure-footed in
> the wet.  I looked into this an discovered that the two front tires were
> mounted rotating the opposite way than the direction arrow on the tire
> specifies!  Probably the tread pattern doesn't displace water very
> efficiently this way...The place I bought them (Sears -- never again!)
> seems prepared to argue that they don't need to be replaced, just swapped
> left-for-right and off I go.
> 
> I have heard that Radial tires get "used" to rotating a certain direction
> and cannot be reversed once they've been "broken in".  My tires now have
> over 2000 miles on them.  It this rumor, truth, or somewhere in between?
>  Is this (more) true for Quattro vs. conventional rear-wheel (or
> front-wheel - ack!) drive?
> 
> I guess another way of asking this question is, when you rotate your tires,
> should you do it front-to-back only or is side-to-side/round robin rotation
> OK?

I don't prefer to change the direction of my tires' rotation. If you're
worried, have the tire removed from the left wheel and mounted on the
right wheel (and vice versa), assuming they're not whitewalls.

hth,
James